Have always wanted one of these crazy autocross/Hillclimb buggies. Finishing up my ax Hillclimb car build. High revving type 1 stroker 2275cc motor with dual 48s, close ratio tranny with torsion bias diff, Konis , 8 inch soft slicks in front, 10 inch rear. 1300 lbs without ballast. ....it might give a 914 AX car a run for its money.

Awesome! Should be a lot of fun Grant

I imagine the front end being so light understeer will be a real issue.

I autocrossed one of those back in the early 70's, with much smaller engine, of course. Did pretty well, best being 3rd fastest time of day, behind only a Lotus 7 and a converted formula car, but ahead of every Corvette and Cobra. STILL proud of that. Didn't do as well on the big courses, obviously (a big 1356cc engine), but still wasn't too far back.

Front end sticks better than you'd think. There's a group of buggies that show up regularly at Marina. I imagine you're already tight with them, but if not they can give you good ideas about suspension setup.

That looks like a lot of fun!

If you look at rear tons of weight has been removed. No alternator or cooling fan. Electric cooling powered by 84 lb battery in front. We are figuring out how to get more weight up front. Using super sticky a15 compound slicks on front. Turning much better than old school buggies

What about separate exhaust pipes running forward instead of backwards?

I'm cheap. The exhaust system on car was almost free. It's fairly light too. Amazing thing is that I trimmed 8 lbs of fiberglass off the back of the car. That boat glass they use is heavy structural stuff. I could probably remove another 10 lbs and rivet fire resistant carbonfiber panels in back but I'm lazy and cheap.

Pic of the 84 lb battery that runs the car without alternator. All part of weight transfer to front. Also eliminating alternator and belt driven fan frees up hp to wheels. 180 ft/lbs of torque and 180 hp all going to forward motion in 1300 lb car.

Fan setup

Have to love VW prices on trannies and diffs . Custom Rancho built close ratio gearbox with high quality Peloquin TB Dif for $2k. And Rancho installed Diff .